Development and validation of a framework for promoting metaverse literacy among senior primary and university students

The development of technologies such as real-time 3D rendering, extended reality, artificial intelligence, and the Internet of Things (IoT) has significantly increased the social impact of metaverses. There is a growing need to promote metaverse literacy among students to enable them to benefit from its development while mitigating potential risks. This study proposes a framework for promoting metaverse literacy, hypothesising that increased engagement in metaverses can enhance their social impact both directly and indirectly by improving people's understanding of them. We designed a metaverse literacy survey to verify this proposed framework and collected data from 415 primary school students and 574 university students. After confirming the validity and reliability of the survey, we applied confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modelling to the primary school data and university data. Our results from the structural equation model (SEM) of the primary school data set supported the framework, showing a significant direct and indirect effect of engagement on social impact mediated by understanding. Results from both SEMs of the primary school students' and university students' data sets indicated the importance of providing opportunities for students to engage with metaverses to better understand their social impact. This research elucidates the relationships among the three dimensions of engagement, understanding, and social impact within the proposed framework. • Validated a scale for exploring metaverse identity to study engagement dynamics. • Identified the need for refining metaverse identity measures. • Identified age group differences in subscales of metaverse identity. • Found no significant age-related difference in goal setting. • Highlights the importance of fostering students' participation.